As the capital of India, New Delhi has a large population, a long history, and a good economy, which seems to be good, but it has a rather serious flaw, that is, it is located at the foot of the Himalayas, only about 300 kilometers away from the border between China and Pakistan.
This defect is fatal when there is almost no danger to defend near New Delhi, and the ancients of our country concluded that such a place "has changed in the world, and it is often rushed by soldiers", and once a war breaks out, it will be the first to be "beaten".
To find out the answer, we must first understand why New Delhi has become the capital of India. And this has to start with the history of ancient India.
On the map, ancient India roughly encompasses today's India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the terrain is very complex, with mountains, plateaus, and plains, but aside from those sparsely populated mountains and broken coastal plainsIn fact, ancient India can be simply divided into three blocks: the Deccan Plateau in the south, the Indus Plain in the northwest, and the Gangetic Plain in the northeast.
To add insult to injury, ancient India was often invaded by foreign peoples, and for thousands of years, Aryans, Persians, Greeks and many other ethnic groups poured into India from the Khyber Pass in the northwest of ancient India, completely changing the ethnic composition of India, so successive Indian rulers had to face a problem, that is, how to win the hearts of the people in all regions and put "bulk India" into a whole.
At this time, the geographical superiority of Delhi is manifestedDelhi is located in the southern part of the Himalayas, near the Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges River, and is just the right distance from all three major blocks of India.
The northwest is the Indus River Plain, the southwest is the Thar Desert, the south is the Deccan Plateau, the east is the Ganges Plain, the north is the Himalayas, with Delhi as the capital, the rulers can go down the river, conquer the Gangetic Plain or the Deccan Plateau, retreat can also rely on the Indus Plain this large rear defense, if you really can't beat it can also calmly withdraw from South Asia from the Khyber Pass, this advantage is not given by other cities, so there are as many as 7 dynasties in Indian history who chose to set the capital of Delhi.
Of course, there are also countries that do not recognize the importance of Delhi, for example, in 1858, after the British exiled the last emperor of the Mughal Empire to Burma, the capital of India was changed to Calcutta, but the British soon found that Kolkata was a good port, but not a good capital, located on the edge of India, and could not control the overall situation at all, so more than 50 years later, in 1911, the British had to move the capital back to Delhi.
However, at this time, Delhi was already in a dilapidated state, so the wealthy British spent 20 years building a new city in the southwest corner of the city, which is the new city we know today.
When India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947, although the British assigned the Indus River Plain to Pakistan, and New Delhi was no longer in the middle, at the beginning of independence, many Indian elites were reluctant to modernize the metropolis, let alone their real estate in New Delhi, so they followed the British policy and set up New Delhi as the capital of IndiaAs a result, within a few years, two major events occurred that pushed New Delhi into a very awkward position.
Kashmir was originally a princely state located at the junction of China, India and Pakistan, and the princely states had semi-autonomous status in British India, so the British promised at the time of the partition of India and Pakistan that the princely states could freely choose their belonging, and the problem with Kashmir was that their princes were Hindus, and the inhabitants were mainly Muslims, so both India and Pakistan believed that they were entitled to this area of about 17The 30,000-square-kilometer princely state, with a population of about 4 million at the time, fought in 1947 and did not declare a ceasefire until 1949.
After the end of the First Indo-Pakistani War, Pakistan effectively controlled about 40% of Kashmir's territory, while India controlled the remaining 60%, and the two sides were at a stalemate in Kashmir.
You know, Kashmir is only about 450 kilometers away from New Delhi, and the road is smooth, so if the Kashmir issue is not resolved, New Delhi is at risk of being "beheaded" by the Pakistani army at any time, and what makes India a headache is that in 1959, Pakistan announced that it would move its capital from the coastal city of Karachi to Islamabad, which is about 250 kilometers away from the Indian border and only about 50 kilometers away from Kashmir.
In 1962, China launched a self-defense counterattack against India, and the divine army descended from the sky, once hitting the vicinity of New Delhi.
After the two wars, India realized what a dangerous situation it had put itself in when it had decided to do so.
To the north, our ** team was condescending, and even set up artillery on the high ground, so that they could directly bombard New Delhi. To the west, Pakistan came to a "Son of Heaven to guard the country", moving the capital to the border, ready for a full-scale attack.
On the one hand, after Pakistan moves its capital to the India-Pakistan border, it can indeed carry out a large-scale raid on New Delhi, but at the same time, India can also send troops directly into Islamabad, so at a distance of almost "bayonet red", whoever moves the capital first shows that he has no confidence, and this will undoubtedly make the countries of the world see the joke, so even if it is just for the sake of face, India has to hold on to not moving the capital.
On the other hand, there are not many options for India to move its capitalThe coastal areas are indeed rich, and many cities, such as Mumbai and Kolkata, are metropolises with a population of more than 10 million, and their economies are among the best, but the problem is that if the capital is moved to the coastal cities, then India must have a strong navy, but now the combat effectiveness of the Indian Navy is very strong.
What's more, the ethnic makeup of India is very complex, with more than 100 ethnic groupsHindi-speaking nationals make up only 43 of the country's total population63%, and concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, ** state, Bihar, the citizens of other states are Xi to speak their own language, if India moves its capital to these places and forcibly promotes Hindi, then other ethnic groups will definitely not be satisfied, as for moving to other cities on the Ganges Plain, such as Kanpur, etc., in essence, it is eight pounds and eight taels, the entire Ganges Plain is flat, no matter how to move the capital to the east, it is difficult to obtain effective depth.
Today, New Delhi's big city disease has been very serious, with a population of 28.5 million in 2021, the second most populous city in the world, the urban area is extremely crowded, and the suburbs are full of tiled houses and tin houses, with poor environment and poor life, but even with all kinds of drawbacks, New Delhi is still the most suitable city for India to set the capital, so what India really needs to do is not to move the capital, but to give up the ambition of illegally occupying the territory of neighboring countries and reconcile with neighboring countries.